1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic gate apparatus which is installed at a ticket gate of a station and the like and, more particularly to an automatic gate apparatus which exchanges examination data recorded on an information medium by wireless communication between the main body of the gate apparatus and the information medium carried by a customer.
2. Description of the Related Art
On a conventional automatic gate apparatus, a commutation ticket is inserted by a customer into the insert port provided on the main body of the gate apparatus and the validity of the commutation ticket is checked. Based on the result of this check, the doors are opened to allow a customer to pass through the gate or the alarm sounds and the doors are shut to obstruct a customer from passing through the gate. In order to be checked by the automatic gate apparatus, examination data, such as names of stations to get on/off, a boarding section, the valid using term, etc. are magnetically recorded on the commutation ticket.
In this case, a customer inserts his commutation ticket into the insert port provided on the main body of the apparatus, moves to the take-out port to which the commutation ticket is transported and takes the ticket discharged out of the take-out port. So, the movement of customer corresponds to the movement of the commutation ticket.
However, in the conventional automatic gate apparatus the customer must insert the commutation ticket, on which examination data are magnetically recorded, into the insert port. A customer is used to keep the commutation ticket in a ticket holder and when using the automatic gate apparatus, the customer must remove the commutation ticket from the ticket holder and insert it into the insert port and put the ticket discharged from the take-out port back in the ticket holder again. The operation requiring that the customer remove the commutation ticket from the ticket holder and return the commutation ticket to the ticket holder is very troublesome.
A wireless card being which is used as an information medium has been proposed recently with this system, the customer is able to pass through a radio communication area of an automatic gate apparatus without taking his wireless card out of his commutation ticket holder.
That is, an automatic gate apparatus using a wireless card is provided with an antenna on one of a pair of gate members which form a passageway. There is a radio communication area established in the passageway to make the communication area possible to exchange examination data by a radio wave generated from the antenna and a radio wave generated from a wireless card carried by a customer when he passes through the passageway.
In stations and the like, the automatic gate apparatus are installed side by side in many cases. In these cases, for instance, a first automatic gate apparatus and an adjacent second gate apparatus are installed side by side, and a first and a second radio communication areas are established for the first and the second automatic gate apparatus, respectively. The radio communication area is established in a large circle or a semi-circle so that the automatic gate apparatus can exchange examination data with a wireless card carried by a customer who is passing through the automatic gate apparatus. As a result, the first and the second radio communication areas overlap each other.
Therefore, if a customer, crossing the entrance of the first automatic gate apparatus, passes through the second automatic gate apparatus, he may pass through both the first and the second radio communication areas. As a result, both gates of the first and the second gate apparatus may open to allow the customer to pass through both the gates when examination data generated from a wireless card carried by this customer are received. At the same time, the examination data transmitted from both the first and the second gate apparatus are written onto the wireless card carried by this customer. At this time, if a second customer passes through the first automatic gate apparatus almost at the same time, he is allowed to pass through the gate without the examination data from the first automatic gate apparatus written onto his wireless card. As a result, if the second customer who passed through the first automatic gate apparatus gets off a train at a different station and tries to pass through an automatic gate apparatus of that station, the gate will be shut and he cannot get out the gate as no examination data have been written on his wireless card at the station he previously entered.
Therefore, the radio communication areas of a plurality of automatic gate apparatus with wireless cards carried by customers cannot be made so large that they cross each other.
On the other hand, if the radio communication area of automatic gate apparatus with wireless cards is too small, examination data cannot be exchanged with wireless cards accurately.